Council tenants offered £100 to tidy their own homes

Nearly 400 council tenants in Norwich have been paid £100 each to tidy their
own homes when they move out, costing the taxpayer £38,000.

Almost 400 tenants have been handed £100 by city council chiefs after they made sure their council homes were clean and tidy when they moved out.

Norwich council's Leave It Tidy incentive scheme cost the Labour-ruled authority £38,000 this year. But council leaders insisted it was money well spent, slashing the amount of time it took to get empty council homes ready for the next occupants.

Some 380 people cashed in on the initiative at the end of their tenancy after meeting certain conditions. They included removing all belongings and rubbish from the property when they left.

Council bosses said that had helped slash the average number of days which their homes stood empty between old and new tenants.

In 2010/11 council homes were empty for an average of just over 45 days. But this year the average time a home stood empty had been cut to just 21 days.

A council spokeswoman said: "By giving tenants an incentive to hand back their home in good condition, it takes fewer days for us to get the house ready for new tenants.

"Fast re-letting reduces the potential for costly vandalism and squatting and helps us to efficiently meet the growing need for good quality affordable housing."

Councillor Victoria MacDonald, cabinet member for housing, said the successful project would continue next year. She said: "We are getting homes back in a better condition, which means voids take less time for us to sort out.

"That's good for the people on the waiting list as it means the homes can be rented more quickly. When you go into homes you can find things you don't expect and it can be costly to sort it out.

"This scheme saves us money on having to clear out those homes and, in these austere times, it's also good for the tenants."

Councillor MacDonald said the latest figures for December showed that the average time for getting council homes occupied again had been reduced to 14 days - outstripping their own target of 16 days. The city council manages almost 16,000 council homes in Norwich.